Goodbye 109!

This Research Proposal was an intimidating project to begin. There were so many variables and so many details to try to sort out. Lauren and I came up with an "original" idea only to find out that there was a paper describing an experiment that was almost identical. So, we brainstormed and thought of a cool way to improve upon our idea. But, once again, things didn't go our way and we discovered that our design setup was actually impossible. There was a lot of trial and error with our design. I guess this is how research is, but it was stressful. However, once we nailed down an idea, the work just flowed out. Once we sat down together to do the work, it was not a problem to do it all. That is what happens when you have a great lab partner and a cool idea.

The presentation seemed to go smoothly as well. We were nervous, so to help alleviate this, we made sure to submit our slides early so that we would be the first to present. This way, we did not have time to watch other presentations and get intimidated. Overall, I think I improved on my speaking skills and I wasn't as nervous as I had been during journal club.

It is pretty weird thinking that I am done with this class. It's kind of conflicting. The class material was really cool, but I have to admit that I won't miss the workload. 20.109 definitely helped me improve as a researcher in both my ability to write and present my scientific findings. I just want to use my last blog post to thank Leslie and Noreen along with the rest of the 109 staff for being so awesome! I hope to see you all around.